Ascent Capital, an established Indian private equity firm focused on growth capital, has closed its Ascent India Fund III with commitments of $350 million. In an extremely challenging year for private equity fund raising where many funds announced fund-raising plans, Ascent Capital is one of the few that have succeeded in closing a fund on schedule. Ascent Capital has an association with UTI Ventures and the present assets under management by Ascent Capital are about $600 million.
It is learnt that Ascent India Fund III was over-subscribed, but the limited partners were not in favour of increasing the hard cap beyond what they believed to be the optimal fund size. Industry sources attribute the success of Ascent Capital in raising funds to their relatively better track record in their previous funds.
It is also learnt the fund has been able to attract long term institutional investors like endowments, universities, pension funds and financial institutions, and by choice have not raised any capital from domestic retail investors. When contacted, Raja Kumar, Founder and CEO of Ascent Capital, confirmed that the fund closed at $350 million in December 2009 but did not elaborate on the details.
Raja Kumar is a veteran of the private equity industry and prior to his decade-old association with the Ascent Capital, was the regional director of SEBI and had been a civil servant.
Industry watchers detail that Ascent closing the fund on time is a sign of confidence that global limited partners are showing on PEs who have established a track record.
“The year 2009 was an extremely difficult year for PEs in their fund-raising owing to liquidity crunch. Many private equity funds are yet to demonstrate exit track record and it will be a challenge going forward,” and industry analyst detailed.
Source: Sify